Glossary
Comprehensive glossary of filmmaking terms, concepts, and techniques.
Showing 54 terms
A
5Abby Singer
Film crew slang for the second-to-last shot of the filming day, named after a television production manager who habitually announced this shot incorrectly as the last.
Action
The verbal cue called by the director to signal performers and crew that filming has begun and the scene should commence.
Ambient Light
The non-directional background light present in an environment from all surrounding sources combined.
Aperture
The opening in a lens through which light passes, controlling exposure and depth of field.
Available Light
All light already present in a location -- natural or artificial -- used without adding any film lighting equipment.
B
2Backlighting
Illumination placed behind the subject, separating them from the background and creating edge definition.
Bounce
A lighting technique in which light is directed onto a reflective surface and allowed to reflect back onto the subject, producing soft, diffuse illumination.
C
7Camera
The device that captures light and records it as a sequence of still images forming a motion picture.
Chiaroscuro
The strong contrast between light and shadow used as a primary expressive tool to create depth and drama.
Contrast
The ratio between the brightest and darkest areas of an image, determined by lighting ratios and scene tonal range.
Crane Shot
A shot captured by a camera mounted on a crane arm, enabling smooth vertical and horizontal movement.
CTB
Colour Temperature Blue — a family of colour correction gels used to raise the colour temperature of a warm light source, converting tungsten output toward daylight balance.
CTB, CTO, CTS
Colour correction gel families used on lights to shift colour temperature: CTB (blue) cools a warm source, CTO (orange) warms a cool source, CTS (straw) adds a subtle warming tint.
CTS
Colour Temperature Straw — a pale amber colour correction gel that adds a subtle warm tint to a light source without performing a full colour temperature conversion.
D
6Dailies
The unedited footage from each day's shoot, reviewed by the director and key crew to assess the previous day's work.
Day-for-Night Shot
A cinematographic technique in which daytime footage is processed or graded to simulate nighttime lighting conditions.
Deep Focus
A cinematographic technique in which all planes of the image — near, mid, and far — are in sharp focus simultaneously.
Deep Focus Shot
A shot in which subjects at very different distances from the camera are all rendered in sharp focus simultaneously.
Diffusion
Material or technique that scatters a light source, increasing its effective size and softening its shadows.
Double Exposure
A technique in which two separate images are recorded on the same film frame or combined digitally, creating a translucent overlay of both images.
F
5F-Stop
A numerical scale that indicates a camera lens's aperture setting, controlling the amount of light passing through the lens to the film or sensor.
Fade
A gradual transition between an image and a solid colour, most commonly black, used to open or close a scene.
Film Grain
The visible texture in photochemical film images caused by silver halide crystals in the emulsion.
Focus
The precise optical alignment that renders a subject at a specific distance as sharp in the recorded image.
Frame Rate
The number of individual frames captured or displayed per second, determining motion smoothness and aesthetic quality.
G
3Gaffer
The head of the lighting department on a film set, responsible for executing the DP's lighting vision.
Gel
Coloured or corrective transparent film placed in front of a light source to change its colour or intensity.
Golden Hour
The period when the sun is low on the horizon, producing warm, directional, long-shadow natural light.
L
2Lap Dissolve
A dissolve of longer duration in which two images overlap for an extended period, creating a sustained superimposition.
Lens
An optical instrument mounted on the camera that focuses light onto the sensor and determines field of view.
M
3Magic Hour
The brief period after sunset or before sunrise when the sky provides soft, diffuse, warm-toned natural light.
Matte Shot
A composite shot in which part of the frame is blocked out during filming and replaced with a separately filmed or painted image.
Mise-en-Scène
Everything visible within a film frame — actors, sets, lighting, costume, and camera position — as a unified expressive whole.
O
2Overcranking
Running the camera at a higher frame rate than the playback rate to produce slow motion in the final image.
Overexposed
An image in which too much light reached the sensor, causing highlight areas to lose detail and clip to white.
S
7Setting
The time and place in which a film's story takes place, shaping character, tone, and visual world.
Shutter Speed
The duration of time the camera's shutter stays open for each frame, controlling exposure and motion blur.
Slow Motion
A visual effect produced by capturing footage at a higher frame rate than playback, stretching action across more screen time.
Soft Focus
A lens or filter technique that reduces image sharpness and spreads highlights, creating a dreamy, romantic quality.
Superimposition
The optical or digital combination of two images so that both are simultaneously visible, one placed over the other.
Surrealism
A movement in art and cinema that draws on dreamlike imagery, irrational juxtapositions, and unconscious logic to challenge rational perception.
Symmetry
A compositional approach in which visual elements are arranged in balanced mirror-image correspondence around a central axis.
T
4T-Stop
A calibrated measurement of a lens's actual light transmission, accounting for internal glass losses, used in cinema to ensure accurate exposure matching across different lenses.
Three-Point Lighting
The foundational lighting setup using key, fill, and back light to illuminate a subject with dimensional depth.
Tilt
A controlled vertical rotation of the camera on its horizontal axis, used to follow vertical movement or reveal height.
Time Lapse
A filmmaking technique that captures frames at a very low rate over a long period, accelerating slow real-world processes in playback.
U
2Undercranking
Running the camera at a lower frame rate than the playback rate to produce accelerated motion in the final image.
Underexposure
A condition where too little light reached the sensor, causing shadow areas to lose detail and noise to increase.